Teach Me Tuesday: Selling off your stuff July 28, 2009

Here we are again for another Teach Me Tuesday.  Last week didn’t work so well…I guess I don’t have enough readers that have an interest in quantum dots!

But this week seems like I might have picked a topic closer to the hearts of my readers:  Selling off your stuff.

I have come to the realization that I have too much stuff cluttering my life.  No matter how often I clean my room, I find more things ending up on countertops, on the floor, or just taking up space, in general.  Then this stuff gets lost, or broken, or dirty, or otherwise unusable.  A lot of it could just go.  I have perhaps seven to ten pairs of brown or black shoes that all pretty much look the same, that I’ll wear to work.  I have free t-shirts stocked away in a drawer (for going to the gym?).  Then there’s all that paperwork that needs to get filed away (or perhaps shredded/thrown away), be it old receipts, invitations/cards from friends, or credit card statements.

I suppose a better headline for the topic may be, how can I get more organized?  Or become a minimalist?  Because that’s really what I want to work towards.  I know Fabulously Broke has quite a few posts about working towards minimalism.  She also mentions that she’s sold some stuff on ebay and craigslist and is working on a post specifically about selling items online.  And Forest has a side business selling books online.  I’ve seen other personal finance bloggers mention selling books and other items online, but I can’t remember who it was.  It seems there are two main reasons people sell their stuff:  to get rid of it or to make money.  I suppose if you just want to get rid of it, you could donate the items (and possibly get a tax deduction from doing so), or if the the items are beyond use, tossing them.

So, where do you sell items you’re looking to get rid of?  Online?  Garage sales?  Do you find just donating the items is easier, that online sales are too much hassle?

I know that there are a lot of things to be said about getting rid of clutter and getting organized as well.  So, I welcome any advice on that topic as well.

Help me (and others) simplify our lives (and maybe make some money in the process)!

Teach Me Tuesday: Quantum Dots July 21, 2009

While I doubt that it could actually become a “trending topic” in Twitter, I’ve decided to start a trend of my own.  I’ve decided that on any given Tuesday, I’ll try to have (on both Twitter and my blog) a “Teach Me Tuesday”.  I’ll mention a topic that interests me (or even a topic suggested by a reader), and discuss what I know.  But really, the goal of these posts/tweets is that I’d love to get other people’s input on the topic.  I’m guessing there are people out there who know a heck of a lot about a subject (or at least more than I know).  I encourage you to try the same (on Twitter) to see what awesome information and guidance your twitter followers (and the twitterverse at large) can provide for you.  Tweet with #teachmetuesday!

So here’s my quick intro to quantum dots:

For the basics about quantum dots, the wikipedia article is a pretty good start.  Mostly what I know is that I may have made some in a lab class during undergrad, and I thought they were pretty cool.  I also attended a presentation once about them from an employee from QD Vision, where I learned more about the possible applications of quantum dots.

What I’m looking for in this (and future posts for Teach Me Tuesday) is what you (the blog-reading public) to provide me (and others that drop by my blog) with your interesting facts, favorite links, or excellent explanations of the topic.  So this week, comment with those ideas about Quantum Dots!  Tell me what’s new and exciting in quantum dot research and utilization, or what you find most impressive/fascinating/scary about them!

#teachmetuesday

June Wrap-up: I spent a lot edition July 3, 2009

June really was a busy month for me.  Work was pretty hectic, and I managed to spend quite a bit of money!

One big ticket item (or collection of items) was reserving flights and hotel rooms for Pi Reunion.  For you non-MIT people, it’s yet another example of our true geekiness:  we’re getting together ~3.14 years after graduation.  Yep, we’re nerds.  And as with years past, it’ll be held in Las Vegas (which my coworkers find funny, that the casinos are going to let a bunch of MIT people in…haven’t they seen “21“?)

Well, so there was a registration fee, which covered getting a group rate on the hotel room, and a few other events, including a show.  Then there was the hotel room itself.  And lastly, the flights…oh the flights.  My boyfriend and I were both hoping the other would take care of finding flights…which meant that I only got our tickets a week or so ago.  So, there were fewer options, and the flights were pricier.  Lesson learned.  I also discovered that, even if those travel websites are useful, it’s still quite the headache searching the different sites (like Travelocity, Expedia, Kayak, and Priceline), as well as the airline sites themselves to look for the best deal.  Finally found something I could live with through Priceline (thanks William Shatner!), and bought tickets.  Bought both our tickets at the same time to make things easier.  And already got Aaron to pay me his half of the flight costs!

Hopefully I wont spend too much more money gambling!

I also hit 10k miles on my odometer.  Last time I went for the recommended tuneup (5k miles), I was able to convince the salesman that it was worth it to give me that for free, after all the trouble I had getting my car to begin with.  No luck this time around.  So that was ~$100 gone.  Going to try to look for deals/coupons in the future to see if I can get the tuneups cheaper in the future.  The salesman did try to sell me a Prius.  Apparently 10k miles is just too much to put on one car!  I laughed at him…I’m assuming he was joking?

I got quite a few emails from Mint alerting me to the fact that I went over my spending limit in my budget for 4 different categories.  And my credit card sent me email alerts for expenses over $100 (I had set up this alert a while back).  So I knew I was getting pretty spendy.

I do know that there were really only a few big purchases, and I’m not planning on continuing to spend like this in the future.  The good news is that, somehow, I managed to squeak by this month and actually get into positive net worth territory.  Next month it will be even better, I’m sure.  I also realized that I’ve actually been tracking my networth (at NetworthIQ) for two whole years already!  And in that time, my networth has gone up ~$48k.  I’m pretty proud of that.  I’m not going to stop now.  It’s actually made me even more excited to eliminate my student loans and car loan.

Next goal:  eliminate a loan from my list (car, or one of the many student loans).  Thinking I should get rid of the car loan first, since it’s at a higher interest rate (if I can figure out how to do prepayment with the credit union my car loan is with).  In the meantime, also paying extra on those student loans!

How are you doing at staying within your budget, and meeting your goals?